Experts: Tax season is year-round for small businesses / Prevent costly audits and other missteps by preparing for tax day throughout the year.

Bennett J. Loudon for The Democrat & Chronicle writes:  Tax audit — two words capable of sending shivers down the spine of tax filers.

Just ask Jason Graham, 34, who opened his first store, Game Players Unlimited, in Brockport, when he was 19.

Graham, whose business empire now extends to two video game stores, a clothing store, two mixed-use properties and a direct-mail coupon book, was audited twice early in his career.

"It was my own fault and it was nothing major," said Graham. "It was because I was filing my own taxes and there were things I was forgetting to file."

Now he uses Flower City Tax and Accounting Services, owned by Valerie Hill.

"If I could give advice to a young business owner pertaining to taxes and the federal government and the IRS, that is: Pay attention. Stay on top of things," Graham said.

Year-long process

The April 15 tax filing deadline is just around the corner, but experts and experienced business owners say preparing for tax filing is a year-long process.

"We totally encourage, especially businesses, not to just meet with us from January through April. We really need to see people consistently to help them tax plan so that we're not dumping a surprise on them in February or March," said Hill.

"I would rather be able to put a Band-Aid on something in July or August than try to rupture this major bleed in February."

Business owners should segregate their personal and business finances. It can also be helpful to use a company credit card for business expenses, or submit a monthly statement to your business for personal expense reimbursement.

If you don't have a professional maintaining your books, experts suggest using computer software to track your money.

For most of us, the deadline for tax filing is April 15. But for S Corporations, a federal business entity designation used by many small businesses with up to 50 shareholders, the deadline was March 17.

"Most people use an entity primarily for legal protection to protect their business endeavors versus their personal affairs and personal assets," said Jim Schnell, a partner at Mengel, Metzger and Barr and head of the accounting firm's tax department.

S Corps don't pay income tax. They report business activity while the shareholders who receive income from the S Corp file personal income tax returns and pay income tax.

"When you have good people that know how to prepare information and know how to gather it, it's usually painless for an operations guy like myself. I rely on my accounting staff to take care of that," said Rich Gianforte, who owns Flower City Glass, with his sister, Karla. [snip]  The article continues at the Democrat and Chronicle, Click here to continue reading.

5 Great Service Scheduling Software Solutions for QuickBooks

Leah Merrill for Capterra writes: Trying to manage your field technicians’ schedules and then manually generate the correct invoices for the correct jobs is like trying to juggle with one arm.

Wouldn’t it be great if there were systems out there designed to automatically create invoices in QuickBooks whenever you finish a job? Well—there are! Many systems are created specifically for QuickBooks users so that whenever you enter customer or job information into the system, it gets automatically sent over to QuickBooks and an invoice is created so the job can be billed immediately—this saves time and eliminates a lot of double entry.

To save you the time of looking through all the systems out there to see which ones can integrate with QuickBooks, I’ve listed five great options for you to look into.

1. Intuit Field Service Management ES

Intuit and Corrigo partnered to develop this web-based field service management software that helps your business run smoothly and manages everything from work order to invoices.  It also works with QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions to keep your field service data together with your financial information. Some of their customers include Brunson Air and Heating and Secon Corporation.

Intuit Field Service Management charges $35/user/month for up to ten users, $31/user/month for 11-40 users, and $28/user/month for 41-100 users. They also have additional per user per month fees for their add-on modules, which are optional.

Pros/Cons

Intuit Field Service Management ES has smooth integration with QuickBooks, the dispatch board can be viewed in live time, scheduling and rescheduling work orders is very easy, and it has great support.

Some drawbacks are that it does not connect with QuickBooks Online, and that there is no mobile calendar or calendar integration.

2. QXpress Scheduling Software

QXpress Scheduling Software by Marathon Data Systems is a program made for QuickBooks users that work in the field service industry. It handles scheduling, job costing and invoicing. Customers include Prime Lawn and New England Lawn Irrigation.

Their plans start at $59/month, and go up to $99/month based on the additional features each package has.

Pros/Cons

QXpress Scheduling Software has smooth integration, it is easy to setup, and scheduling and estimating jobs is very simple as well.

A downside of the software is that reporting can be difficult, and if you continue to upgrade QuickBooks, you’ll also need to keep QXpress updated or it may stop working with QuickBooks.

3. The Service Program

The Service Program by Westrom Software is software that works with QuickBooks to help you manage your service business and handles things like scheduling, route tracking and invoicing. They offer three different ways to use the software: subscription, finance, or purchase.

Subscription would involve an upfront cost of anywhere from $249-$1200 and a monthly fee of $50-$200, depending on the number of PCs.

The finance option involves a down payment of anywhere from $500-$2,000, a monthly payment of $145-$210, and support costs from $25-$60 per month, depending on the number of PCs.

The purchase option ranges in price from $2,095-$4,295 total, with yearly support fees that range from $300-$700, depending on the number of PCs. 

Pros/Cons

Users have said that The Service Program works great with QuickBooks, can track field technicians and their jobs well, and is flexible and able to change along with your business.

Cons include the fact that there are not many tutorials besides some training videos, and at times it can be difficult to get questions answered.

4. ServiceTask

ServiceTask Software by New Service LLC is web-based software that helps you to schedule jobs, has reminders and notes, and a dispatch board. Customers include Alpine High Window Cleaning and Eco Tech Pest Control.

There are no installation or download fees, and they also have free support and upgrades. For one user it is $24/month, and for unlimited users it is $49/month.

Pros/Cons

ServiceTask is reported to have a great support team, be intuitive, have a great calendar feature, and be open to making changes.

However, some users say there is no products or inventory support, and no invoice support.

5. Smart Service

Smart Service by Intuit is a service scheduling software designed for QuickBooks users that handles scheduling and routing for a wide range of industries.  Their customers include USA Plumbing, Amps & Volts Electric, and Empire Pools, Inc. Smart Service costs around $1,600 for a one-time fee.

Pros/Cons

Smart Service has a good dispatch feature, is simple and easy to use, has good technical support, and has great scheduling features.

Some downsides of the software are that loading times can be high, and sometimes updates are run without warning.

Have any questions or comments? Are there other service scheduling systems you think play well with QuickBooks? Add them below!

Moving from QuickBooks® Desktop to Online? Here’s What You Need to Know!

Esther Friedberg Karp for Intuit writes: We’ve all been waiting for it anxiously and now it’s here. We can now import our Canadian QuickBooks for Windows companies into QuickBooks Online (QBO) and we can keep the company’s transaction history. Our clients have been asking for it and now we can do it for them.

Two Options for Converting: As it turns out, we have two options available to us when converting from QuickBooks Desktop to QBO. Each has its pros and cons, so you should be aware of which one is suited to your needs.

You can “Do it Yourself” (DIY) from within QBO and QuickBooks Desktop, or you can choose the “Do it For Me” (DIFM) option offered by Odyssey Resources, Intuit’s official conversion partner. Both options are free and they both bring different benefits to the table.

Note: Bear in mind that QBO does not feature Sales Orders, Inventory Assembly, Units of Measure, or Progress Invoicing. If a QuickBooks Desktop company requires any of these features, you will not be able to convert to QBO at this time.

The DIY Method

Converting QuickBooks Desktop files to QBO yourself is right for you if you:

• Require immediate conversion,
• Have only one or two companies to convert at a time,
• Want control over the process,
• Have your data in (or can easily upgrade your data to) QuickBooks 2012 format or later,
• Do not have multiple currencies turned on your company file,
• Do not require inventory items in your company, and
• Do not require a French language user interface in your conversion screen.

The DIFM Method

Converting QuickBooks Desktop files to QBO via Odyssey Resources’ DIFM is great if you:

• Don’t mind waiting for the conversion to take place (the timeline depends on the file being converted; many are done within 5 business days);
• Would rather have a trusted Intuit partner do the work;
• Have multiple conversions to do at once and don’t have the time to handle them yourself;
• Have multiple currencies turned on your company file;
• Require inventory items in your company;
• Have your data in QuickBooks 2009 or later, including 2009 Quebec; and
• Require French in a conversion screen if you were to do it yourself.

If you think this method is right for you, call 1-866-854-7605 to speak to the team.

So What Do I Do Now? – Life After Converting

Regardless of which option you’ve chosen to convert the data, there are a number of tasks you will want to undertake as soon as possible after converting to QBO:

1. Enter Payroll

Neither conversion method imports payroll information; however, paycheques from Desktop do come across in QBO as regular cheques. Therefore, payroll items, employee information, and year-to-date payroll information and source deductions must be entered in QBO so that T4’s and other payroll reports are accurate.

2. File GST/HST Returns

You will be required to employ the GST/HST filing function in QBO after conversion, to ensure that the QBO sales tax filing records match those in Desktop.

3. Reconcile Banks, Credit Cards and Other Items

After all transactions have been either converted or entered manually into QBO, you will want to reconcile any bank, credit card or other balance sheet accounts that typically were reconciled in Desktop to ensure that everything was converted or entered properly.

4. Set up Your Company Users and Accountant Users

The users in a QuickBooks Desktop file are not brought over to QBO, so the Master Admin user in the new QBO file will be required to invite regular company users (assuming QBO Essentials or Plus are being used) as well as any of the two free Accountant users. If the accounting professional has set up the company, he or she will want to transfer the Master Admin user to their client and keep themselves as an Accountant user.

5. Run Reports and Compare Them

When you’re done with the transactions and all the reconciliations, compare reports in both QBO and QuickBooks Desktop, to ensure that the conversion was successful and accurate:

• Balance Sheet (all dates)
• Profit & Loss (all dates)
• Open Invoices
• Unpaid Bills
• Payments being deposited from “Undeposited Funds”
• Tax Liability reports

6. Create Custom Reports and Save the Customizations

Just as QuickBooks Desktop has memorized reports, QBO allows you to customize reports and save the report customizations. You will have to do this yourself in QBO because memorized reports from Desktop do not convert. Customized reports in QBO can be saved in groups for automatic emailing to selected email addresses.

7. Make Transactions Recurring

QuickBooks Desktop has memorized transactions, but these do not come across into QBO upon the conversion. Therefore, you’ll want to find each transaction that you want to memorize, open it, select Make Recurring, and specify the schedule.

8. Get Your Logo Ready and Customize Your Forms

Just as QuickBooks Desktop has templates for invoices and other forms you can customize, QBO allows you to customize your invoice forms as well, but you’ll have to set them up yourself. These customizations include using a logo, so have a digital copy of your logo ready.

Now that you know what each import option offers, and what tasks must be completed after conversion, you can make an informed decision about when and how to convert any QuickBooks Desktop company to QuickBooks Online. For accounting professionals, this is a great opportunity to get your clients on QBO and earn revenue for performing the conversion!

You can visit the authors 's Website Here

3 Reasons The IRS Bitcoin Ruling Is Good For Bitcoin

David Smith for Benzinga and BitCoinVista.com writes: On Tuesday, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service issued a notice, informing Americans of the U.S. Federal tax implications of bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin owners and prospective bitcoin owners should take five minutes to read the six-page notice.

For the most part, Bitcoin owners were pleasantly surprised by the news. Anyone who researched the topic or spoke with a knowledgable accountant understood bitcoin gains would need to be reported at tax time. It was expected they would be treated as property, which is how the IRS guidance ended up dealing with bitcoins.

Bitcoiners expected clarification at some point, but not before this year’s tax filing deadline.

This clarification is good news for three reasons.

First, it clears up the tax environment. Prior to this announcement, some potential bitcoin investors were concerned it might be illegal. Others thought it was legal, but didn’t want to risk getting in trouble with the IRS by making a mistake on their taxes.

This announcement, however, demonstrates that bitcoin is a legal financial investment, and provides certainty as to the way transactions should be reported. Before this announcement there was mostly guesswork as to how the IRS would classify bitcoin transactions. No one likes guessing when it comes to tax penalties, and this guidance removes that guesswork.

The second reason this is good news: this is one of the best possible outcomes. If bitcoin had been classified as a currency instead of property, that would have resulted in a higher tax liability for many bitcoiners — since those gains or losses are classified as ordinary income or loss. With Tuesday’s IRS ruling, bitcoin investors can further benefit from the U.S. long-term capital gain rate, in addition to their investment’s massive appreciation.

Lastly, this is good news is because, with this announcement, the IRS at least recognizes the legality of bitcoin — if not tacitly endorsing bitcoin by stating “Virtual currency is a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and/or a store of value.” For some that is a big deal.

Not many people love the IRS. However most people respect the agency, and its recognition that bitcoin has utility is a win in the battle to eliminate the myth that “bitcoin is a mirage.”

Disclosure: At the time of this writing David Smith has a long bitcoin position.  Visit BitCoinVista here.

Learning From March Madness: Why Filing an Extension Could Be Your Sleeper Tax Strategy

Mark  J Kohler for Entrepreneur writes: The ‘safe’ bets aren’t always so safe. Which is why ESPN experts explaining the science behind their March Madness brackets often claim that ‘unconventional wisdom’ can be the secret to success -- and to saving your precious $5 entry fee in the office pool.

The ‘Bracketologists’ have a point. After all, how many of you picked Dayton, Tennessee or Stanford to be in your sweet sixteen? Not likely when Duke or Wichita State were the ‘safe’ bets, right?

Regrettably, I think many small business owners will also rush to file their tax returns in the next 3 weeks because it’s the conventional wisdom to file by April 15. In reality, acting hastily to meet this deadline could force them to overlook critical deductions.

Let’s be honest. We all know that tax planning takes place in November and December. So instead of me writing an article on a bunch of last minute pseudo tax tips that are simply a feeble attempt at making us feel better for putting off what we should have done last year, let’s call a spade a spade.

Are you going to save thousands on your tax return? What is your ‘Taxology’ for super savings at this point? Shouldn’t it be scouring any and all records, bank statements, credit card bills or receipts for extra write-offs you may have missed capturing last year?

You know what I’m talking about: filing an extension. It could be your sleeper ‘Taxology’ strategy.

First, filing an extension is the equivalent to taking a ‘Time Out’ right before a game’s final shot. It gives you a chance to dig up all the expenses you can and reevaluate how aggressive you want to be on your tax return. [snip]  The article continues at Entrepreneur, click here to continue reading. 

Importing Bitcoin Sales into Quickbooks / BitPay offers Quickbooks integration to merchants on both our Business and Enterprise plans.

BitPay is an electronic payment processing system for the bitcoin currency. We enable online merchants to accept bitcoins, as a form of payment, just as they accept payments from Visa, Mastercard, or Paypal.  Jason @ Bitpay writes:  Bitcoin sales can be exported from BitPay and imported into Quickbooks. We recommend the setup described below.

Home Currencies supported: USD, EUR, CAD

In Quickbooks, you do not need multi-currency enabled if your home currency is USD, EUR, or CAD, and you are taking 100% settlement from BitPay in that same home currency.

Preparing Quickbooks

First, create 3 new Accounts in your Chart of Accounts. Income and Expense accounts can only be denominated in your home currency. (Below, replace USD with your home currency.)

Account 1

Type	Income
Account Name	BitPay Sales USD
Tax-line Mapping	Income: Gross Receipts or Sales

Account 2

Type	Expense
Account Name	BitPay Fees USD
Tax-line Mapping	COGS: Other Costs

Account 3

Type	Bank
Account Name	BitPay AR USD
Tax-line Mapping	B/S Assets: Accts Rec

Your bank account should already be in Quickbooks. BitPay’s ACH/EFT transfer will be transferred toMy Bank which you can change in the General Ledger transaction after import. Your QuickbooksChart of Accounts should have these entries:

Importing Bitcoin Sales

To confirm that your Quickbooks is properly configured, a sample file is provided at the bottom of this article.

From the menu in Quickbooks, select: File > Utilities > Import > IIF files and import the sample file.

You can confirm that the file was imported correctly by noting that My Bank USD shows a balance of $100.00. You can review the G/L to verify Sales Receipts. Edit the transfer to replace My Bank USD with the Bank account in your chart of accounts that received the direct deposit from BitPay.

Your BitPay sales are now fully integrated with your financial reports in Quickbooks!

Note that if you keep any % of your sales in Bitcoin, this will not be noted in the download. It will prorate the gross sale to only the % of the gross sale which you settle in your local currency. Read the next section “Keeping Partial or All Settlement in Bitcoin” to learn more.

Visualizing your Bitcoin Sales

Income Statement

Balance Sheet

 

To download your BitPay transactions, login to your merchant account at https://bitpay.com. From your dashboard, click on Account Ledger and select your home currency to download.

You will need to specify the date range to download, and then choose: Quickbooks IIF file.

We should note that Quickbooks does not support multi-currency very well, even in the 2013 edition. Nonetheless, we have used the capabilities of Quickbooks to their current maximum potential.

If you take 100% settlement from BitPay in your home currency, you are done!

If you keep a % of your BitPay Sales in Bitcoin, follow the next section to import those from your BitPay BTC ledger.

Keeping Partial or All Settlement in Bitcoin

The Gross, Net, and Fees are % prorated from the total amount of the sale. Meaning if you keep 10% bitcoin and settle 90% in EUR, your EUR ledger will have an entry representing 90% of the total gross sale, and your BTC ledger will have an entry representing 10% of the total gross sale, with the same Order Number so you can match them up in Quickbooks.

Create 2 more accounts in your Quickbooks Chart of Accounts:

Account 4

Type	Bank
Account Name	BitPay AR BTCUSD
Tax-line Mapping	B/S Assets: Accts Rec

Account 5

Type	Bank
Account Name	My Wallet BTCUSD
Tax-line Mapping	B/S Assets: Cash

These accounts represent the USD value of your bitcoin, at BitPay and also when pushed to your bitcoin wallet.

How to Reconcile your Company’s Bitcoin holdings in Quickbooks

While Intuit’s support for multi-currency doesn’t give all the income/expense reporting needed for bitcoin transactions, it is possible to add your bitcoin wallet into Quickbooks, and mark your digital assets to market price every day or every month.

As of the 2013 edition, Quickbooks cannot:

1. have an income account in any currency other than your home currency
2. have an expense account in any currency other than your home currency
3. allow you to set your home currency to a currency you add (e.g. Bitcoin)
4. resolve any currency balance to more than 2 decimal place precision
5. allow you to specify an exchange rate for each sale
6. allow you to specify a data source for exchange rates for a currency
7. allow you to upload a history of exchange rates for a currency
8. allow an exchange rate with a date & time (only 1 rate per calendar day permitted)

We encourage Quickbooks users to contact Intuit directly and encourage development in the above 8 areas to improve their multicurrency support.

You cannot enter Income or Expenses in BTC, mBTC. But you can setup a Bank account in bitcoin to declare and value your bitcoin holdings. You will first need to enable multicurrency support in your Quickbooks. Then, you can add a new currency. From the menu in Quickbooks, select: Company > Manage Currency > Currency (New)

Name	millibitcoin (mBTC)
Symbol	mBTC

Next, create a new account in your chart of accounts for each bitcoin wallet you want to account for in Quickbooks.

Type	Bank
Account Name	My Wallet mBTC
Currency	millibitcoin (mBTC)
Tax-line Mapping	B/S Assets: Cash

Because Quickbooks precision cannot go past 2 decimal places for the quantity, if you want to account for your bitcoin holdings you will need to use millibitcoins (mBTC). The exchange rate for mBTC is the rate for BTC divided by 1,000. Quickbooks does have 8 decimal precision when calculating the rate, but only 2 decimal precision on the quantity.

USD for 1 bitcoin (BTC)	$123.4567
USD for 1 milibitcoin (mBTC)	$0.1234567

To transfer the balance from the USD representation of your bitcoin wallet to the mBTC account for your bitcoin wallet:

Every day, you will manually need to enter the exchange rate under Company - Manage Currency. The exchange rate is the USD amount pushed to My Wallet BTCUSD divided by the actual number of bitcoins delivered to your wallet, as viewed directly on your bitpay.com BTC account ledger page.

Then, manually enter a TRANSFER every day to clear out the deposit from the My Wallet BTCUSDand transfer into My Wallet mBTC. Your wallet should now show the latest deposit in the correct number of mBTC, and on your balance sheet the entire wallet balance will be marked to the current market price.

What is BitPay?

BitPay is an electronic payment processing system for the bitcoin currency. We enable online merchants to accept bitcoins, as a form of payment, just as they accept payments from Visa, Mastercard, or Paypal. 

In which countries is BitPay available?

BitPay is available in every country, and you can set your prices in over 150 different currencies. 

How do I get paid?

Merchants choosing to keep the bitcoins can be anywhere in the world. Merchants in some countries can choose to receive a direct deposit into their bank account. 

When do I get paid?

We prefer to send one payment to every merchant each day, which clears out their balance with BitPay. This prevents balances from accumulating and discourages hackers. Payments to bank accounts are made per business day. Payments in bitcoins are sent to the bitcoin address of your choice, at least once per calendar day. 

Visit BitPay Here.

Final Information Reporting Requirements For Employers / Employer information reporting under the Affordable Care Act, provide a more streamlined process for reporting than initially anticipated.

Lois Wagman Colbert, Sarah N. Lowe, Martha L. Sewell, Mark L. Stember and Karen D. Martinez for Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP write: The time and cost of complying with any additional reporting requirement is never good news. However, the final regulations issued on March 10, 2014, regarding employer information reporting under the Affordable Care Act, provide a more streamlined process for reporting than initially anticipated. This Alert focuses on the Section 6055 and Section 6056 reporting requirements applicable to employers. Additional requirements apply to insurers, and those requirements are not addressed in this Alert.

Overview of Employer Reporting Requirement

The Affordable Care Act added information reporting requirements to the Internal Revenue Code under Sections 6055 and 6056. Section 6056 reporting requires applicable large employers (generally those with at least 50 full-time employees) to report to the IRS information about the health coverage they provided to their employees. This reporting is necessary for the IRS to determine if the employer penalties under Code Section 4980H apply (i.e., the penalties for failing to offer coverage or failing to offer affordable, minimum value coverage). Employers are also required to provide statements to employees regarding their health coverage, primarily so they can determine if they are eligible for a premium tax credit for the purchase of health insurance through the Marketplace.

Section 6055 reporting requires information be provided by any person that provides minimum essential coverage to an individual, including insurers and self-insured employers. This reporting is necessary to assist the IRS in enforcing the individual mandate which imposes a tax to individuals under Code Section 5000A for failure to maintain minimum essential coverage ("MEC").

The final regulations allow reporting under both these sections on the same form. This is of some help to employers, but the extent of the required information that is to be reported has not been significantly changed from the proposed regulations. The forms are not yet available, but the regulations include details on what will be reported.

Reporting Requirements

Each member of a controlled group of companies must file its own information return. For simplicity, we refer to each separate member as the "employer" in this Alert. While this is consistent with how the employer penalties under Code Section 4980H are assessed, it creates complications for corporations with multiple subsidiaries. However, the final regulations permit a third party to submit the filing on an employer's behalf. For example, the health plan sponsor (which is typically the corporate parent in a multiple subsidiary situation) or third party administrator may submit the filing on behalf of each participating employer.

General Method

All employers may utilize the general method for the required reporting, even if an alternative method of reporting is available. A separate return is required for each full-time employee, just as is the case with Forms W-2. There is also a single combined form that is used for the Sections 6055 and 6056 reporting (two separate forms are not required). The reporting is done by using Form 1094-C (a transmittal) and Form 1095-C (an employee statement), or other forms the IRS may designate. Alternatively, a substitute form is also available. In general, the forms would be completed as follows:

• Self-Insured Medical Plan: Reports on Form 1095-C, completing both sections for the required information under both Sections 6055 and 6056.
• Insured Medical Plan: Reports on Form 1095-C, but the employer completes only the Section 6056 reporting. Health insurers, self-insured multi-employer plans, and providers of government-sponsored coverage report the required Section 6055 information on Form 1095-B.

Overview of Information to be Reported under Section 6056

Required information for Section 6056 reporting:

• Name, address and EIN of the employer (which is each separate employer in a multiple subsidiary situation)
• Address and telephone number for the employer's contact person (can be a third party)
• Certification as to whether full-time employees (and dependents) were offered the ability to enroll in minimum essential coverage ("MEC")
• For each full-time employee:
  • the months for which MEC was available
  • the employee's share of the lowest cost monthly premium for self-only coverage providing minimum value available to that employee (by month)
  • name, address and social security number and the months, if any, during which such employee was covered under an eligible employer-sponsored health plan

In addition, there will be indicator codes to report the following information:

• Whether coverage provides minimum value and whether the employee was permitted to enroll his/her spouse
• Total number of employees, by month
• Whether an employee's effective date of coverage was affected by a permissible waiting period, by month
• Whether employer had no employees or otherwise credited hours of service, by month
• Whether employer is part of a controlled group and, if so, the name and EIN of each member that is part of the applicable large employer on any day of the year
• For those that contribute to a multi-employer plan (such as a union plan), whether the employer is not subject to the employer penalty due to the employer's contribution to that plan
• If a third party is reporting for the employer, the name, address and ID number of the third party
• With respect to each full-time employee, it is anticipated that the following will be reported:
• Whether MEC was offered to the employee only, employee and dependents only, employee and spouse only, or employee and family
• If coverage was not offered, whether no penalty will apply, whether the employee was not full-time or not employed by the employer during that month or whether no other code or exception applies
• Coverage was offered even though the employee was not full-time
• Whether the employer met the affordability safe harbor

The required statement to the employee may be made by providing a copy on Form 1095-C or a substitute statement.

Method and Timing for Filing Section 6056 Returns and Employee Statements

Electronic filing of Forms 1094-C and 1095-C is required, except for employers filing fewer than 250 returns under Section 6056 during the calendar year. The required employee statements can be provided electronically if the rules that apply to the electronic furnishing of Forms W-2 are met, including that the employee's consent to electronic disclosure of this specific form is obtained first.

Annual filings are due no later than February 28 of the year following the year to which the information relates or, if filed electronically, by March 31. Employee statements must be provided annually on or before January 31 (these are the same filing due dates as apply for Forms W-2). These deadlines apply even to plans that are not calendar year plans. This means that the first filings and statements will be due in early 2016 with respect to 2015 coverage.

Alternative Methods for Reporting

The reason for Section 6056 reporting is to assist the IRS in administering the penalties under Section 4980H and the premium tax credit. After reviewing comments, the IRS agreed that there are groups of employees for whom more streamlined, alternative reporting would provide a sufficient amount of information. Each employer can decide whether to use the alternative method of reporting for the employees for whom this simplified reporting is available and the general method for others, or instead to use the general method for all employees.

A. Reporting by Certification of Qualifying Offers

Under this alternative, the employer certifies on the Section 6056 transmittal form that it offered a qualifying offer of coverage to the employee and can provide a simplified statement to the employee (as opposed to providing a Form 1095-C). An employer is eligible for this reporting with respect to an employee if for all months during the applicable year in which the employee is a full-time employee with respect to a Section 4980H employer penalty could apply, the employer makes a qualifying offer which means it:

• Offered MEC providing minimum value at a cost for employee-only coverage for not more than 9.5% of the single mainland federal poverty line to one or more of its full-time employees
• Offered MEC to the employee's spouse and dependents (or would have if the employee had a spouse and/or dependents)

An employer that takes advantage of the transition relief and does not offer dependent coverage in 2015 will not be eligible for this alternative reporting. In addition, this reporting method is not available with respect to an employee who receives a qualifying offer for less than 12 months, such as because the employee was hired or terminate during the year or was in a waiting period or look-back measurement period.

B. 2015 Transition Reporting by Certification of Qualifying Offers

Solely for 2015, this option is available to an employer that can certify that it made a qualifying offer of coverage to at least 95% of its full-time employees and to their spouses and dependents and that provides a simplified statement to the employee about the coverage by the following January 31. Providing coverage for all 12 months is not a requirement for this transition reporting method. The IRS will prescribe the required statement that is to be provided to employees. Under this method, the IRS filing requirement is satisfied by simply filing the Form 1095-C and providing the employee's name, social security number and address and an indicator code that either a qualifying offer was made for all 12 months, the specific months for which it was made, or that such an offer was not made. Future forms and instructions will provide further information on this alternative option.

C. Reporting without Separate Identification of Full Time Employees

This method is available to an employer making an offer of MEC to at least 98% of the employees on whom it reports information under Code Section 6056. For this purpose, affordability can be determined under any of the applicable safe harbors.

D. Transition Reporting for Mid-Size Employers (50-99 Full-Time Employees)

Employers eligible for the transition relief from the employer penalties must still report for 2015. However, under this reporting method, the employer certifies that it meets the eligibility requirements for the "under 100" transition relief.

It will be important to review the forms and instructions once they are available for a more complete understanding of each of the above reporting requirements and options.

Penalties

Failure to comply with the Section 6056 reporting requirement can result in penalties under Section 6721 for failure to file correct returns and Section 6722 for failure to provide employee statements. However, the IRS will not impose penalties for reports and statements provided in 2016 to report offers of coverage in 2015 for incorrect or incomplete reporting, if the employer can show it made good faith efforts to comply. In addition, if an employer fails to timely meet the requirements, it may be eligible for penalty relief if the IRS determines the failure was due to reasonable cause as provided in the standards for relief under Section 6724.

How to Benefit From MLPs’ Complex Tax Rules / Investors have options when buying and selling master limited partnerships, a Morningstar expert explains

Janet Levaux for Think Advisor writes: Master limited partnerships are attractive total-return vehicles for investors, but their tax treatment can be intimidating.  ThinkAdvisor spoke with Abby Woodham, a fund analyst with Morningstar’s Passive Fund Research group in Chicago, about what issues investors should keep in mind when mulling MLP purchases and sales.

Can you briefly summarize the rather complex issue of MLP taxation?

Individual MLPs, which are partnerships and are not seen as separate from their owners, pass their tax liability onto unitholders, so you—the investor—would owe taxes on your portion of an MLP’s taxable income, which is stated on a K-1 tax form.

If your MLP investment generates high enough income in a state other than your own, you could have to file a tax return in that state. Luckily, some states (Texas, for instance) do not levy a state income tax.

This can be a bit of a pain for some people.

Can you explain what makes MLP taxation complicated?

The distributions you receive are treated as return of capital, and reduce your cost basis. You only pay tax on these distributions when you sell your MLPs units. This is effectively tax-differed distribution. Plus, you only pay taxes on the taxable part of a distribution, which often can be zero.

MLPs can use depreciation to reduce their reported net income lower than the level of cash they are distributing to unitholders. [snip]  The article continues at Think Advisor, click here to continue reading the article.

Get Connected to the IRS with Social Media

The tax deadline’s almost here. If you haven’t yet filed, you may think you need to rush to find what you need to file your tax return. However, a quick and easy method to get help is to use IRS social media. It’s a convenient way to get the tax information and tools you need to help you file your federal tax return.

Consider using these IRS social media tools to help you navigate the tax deadline.

• IRS2Go.  IRS's free mobile app gives you your refund status, tax news updates, IRS YouTube videos and lets you request your tax records. IRS2Go is available for the iPhone, iTouch or Android mobile devices.
• YouTube.  IRS offers dozens of video tax tips on a variety of topics in English, Spanish and American Sign Language.
• Twitter.  Tweets from @IRSnews provide tax-related announcements and daily tax tips. Tweets from @IRStaxpros offer news and guidance for tax professionals. Tweets from @IRSenEspanol have news and information in Spanish, The Taxpayer Advocate Service sends tweets from @YourVoiceAtIRS. @RecruitmentIRS provides updates for job seekers.
• Podcasts.  IRS has short audio recordings that offer one tax-related topic per podcast. They are available through the Multimedia Centeron the IRS website. Podcast transcripts are also available.
• Tumblr.  Follow the IRS on Tumblr and never miss a post! IRS Tumblr is a microblogging platform where users can access IRS tax tips, videos and podcasts. The IRS uses Tumblr to share information about important programs. Access Tumblr from your browser, Smartphone, tablet or desktop.
• Facebook.  IRS has four Facebook pages that provide news and information for taxpayers and tax return preparers. You can check the IRS pages to get updates on job openings or for tax assistance from the Taxpayer Advocate Service.

Protecting your privacy is a top priority at the IRS. The IRS uses social media tools to share public information, not to answer personal tax or account questions. You should never post your Social Security number or any other confidential information on social media sites.

Get connected and stay connected to the IRS with social media.